Just Visiting
by Dragodden
Summary: A small child stumbles intentionally upon the group, bringing questions of “when!”, “how!” and “where?” Kagome and Inuyasha have some major explaining to do, but what happens when they can’t?


I've finally mustered the courage to actually post online! I live to please, and if I don't... I live to please!

This is my first fanfic in any anime and/or format, so please tell me if I'm on the right road! I'm sure the idea's been done, but I hope to put a little of my own taste into it.. plus pictures! (I draw.) One warning: I don't know how consistant updates will be.

Enjoy chapter one!

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**Chapter One: Newcomer**

Electric currents of miasma sizzled over the battlefield. The ordeal concluded many hours prior; only now was the chaotic energy thinning out. If one were to look closely, indications of a monstrous battle would be obvious, with evidently no side the victor. Many youkai remains littered the field, traces of human blood mingling among them. The youkai side had obviously taken most of the damage, though they had forced the small squad of opponents to retreat. These specific youkai could not back down even if they wanted to. They would have fought to the death.

A small figure wandered out from the cover of the forest and jumped playfully into the battlefield. She cocked her head, her surroundings beginning to sink in. She glanced at a snake-like youkai head a few feet away from her, its tongue hanging out of its mouth lifelessly. Picking up a stick, she prodded at the dry tongue, seemingly having the time of her life. Perhaps it was her wild imagination, or a slight hallucination from the miasma lightly wavering over her senses, but the head began to shift. As her golden eyes widened, she shrieked, more in surprise than fear, and ran off in the opposite direction from which she had come.

Stopping abruptly, her nose twitching as she registered a very familiar scent, a broad, relieved grin overcame her mouth. Squealing in delight, she ran off, following the trail of the smell.

* * *

Kagome sighed in delight as she let the warm movement of the hot spring lap around her aching body. It had been a long battle, and Kagome couldn't appreciate her friends more. 

Miroku had used his 'air rip' at the beginning of the battle before Naraku's poison wasps had appeared, yet his skills hadn't ended there. It was a relief to know Miroku wasn't completely dependent on his curse, and had holy skills and brute strength to back him up.

Sango with her bone boomerang, Haraikotsu, and faithful ally Kirara couldn't make a better team. Their skills were the obvious result of a life-time together. It was as if the two were one entity, able to read each other's thoughts at will.

With a small smile of affection falling across her lips, Kagome's mind wandered to Shippou, the events playing through her glazed eyes. He had thrown a protective fox fire shield over his human companions when Naraku's miasma had begun to spread. She mentally noted to praise the little demon when she got back to camp.

Inuyasha, had obviously put up a good fight, forcing Naraku to turn tail and run, spewing miasma at the group as if metaphorically farting to insult them. If they hadn't had to retreat for the sake of the human section of their party when Naraku's miasma had begun to intensify, Inuyasha might have been able to pursue the fiend and finish him off. Through the battle, the group had somehow reverted Naraku's form back into the huge glob of youkai he was originally made from. Most of the remains the group had left behind, scattered on the field had been parts of Naraku's 'body.'

'Oh, the way that coward acts all high and mighty all the time before running away practically wailing like a child..' Okay, she was exaggerating, but still, that sorry excuse for a... whatever he was, had no plausible reason to deserve his existence. Kagome shook her head and told herself that her body was too tired to deal with her anger right now.

Sango had reluctantly declined her invitation to the hot spring, muttering that she had to mend Haraikotsu before she let her guard down. Kagome had wondered whether she was talking about the youkai in the area, or the 'honourable priest' that had been inching towards her with a grin on his face and a twinkle in his eye. Nevertheless, Kagome had enjoyed her bath, and the time to herself had allowed her an opportunity to think.

"Better finish off," Kagome mumbled aloud, "I may turn into a prune." Lifting her body gingerly from the comforting pool, she futilely attempted to grab her towel, just out of reach.

As Kagome struggled to reach out further, a small child jumped down from the low branch of a tree and grinned brightly at her. Without hesitation, she grabbed Kagome's towel and ran up to the startled girl, hands extended with her item, the grin never leaving her face. The kid couldn't have been older than four, wearing an oversized, bright red kimono that seemed to have a suspiciously familiar style to it.

What Kagome found strange about the girl were her features. Through her broad grin, Kagome could see the glint of a small canine fang, her amber eyes gleaming with temporarily suppressed excitement. She briefly wondered if the child was a youkai, but by looking more closely at her eyes, discovered them to be clearly human, exempting the peculiar colour. 'Inuyasha's eye-colour,' she mused idly. Glancing at the girl's ears, Kagome became even more bewildered at the sight of two flawless human ears, poking out from her shining black and silvery-white hair. Wait. Black and white hair? Kagome blanched. Tufts of white hair sprang down in front of her ears, her bangs the same colour, leaving the rest of her springy, shoulder-length hair ebony black. It made the girl appear to have a glowing face, illuminating her white strands. What was yet more strange, was that the girl's hair fell in the same way Kagome's did, uniquely her style—except, of course, the long white strands flowing in front of her ears. Those seemed more like Inuyasha's sty-

'Eh?!' Kagome's mind began to scream strange ideas into her head. She blinked away the thoughts and placed a kind smile on her face as she accepted her towel from the child. "Thank you." Kagome stepped out of the spring, and hadn't even been able to place the towel over her body properly, before the kid launched herself at her legs.

"Was I good?! Was I?! It took me a looooooooong time!" The girl grasped Kagome's left leg with a clawed hand and hugged with all her might, no regard to Kagome's wet state. "I finally found you, mommy!"

Kagome's smile wavered through the odd behaviour, but stayed stubbornly firm as she chuckled awkwardly. "Y-yes. Yes, you're a good g- wait." Kagome's expression fell dark, "MOMMY?" She gaped wide-eyed into the child's familiar golden orbs. "I'm only 17!"

The question didn't seem to effect the kid as she continued to hug her 'mother' adoringly, breathing in the scent she had desperately missed during the time away from her. The thought of being together again nearly brought tears to her eyes.

Kagome ungracefully dried off and dressed while the child hung on, practically an additional limb. When she had completed her difficult task, she hesitantly reached down and dislodged the little girl from her leg, lifting her up in front of her face to stare eye to eye.

"Listen, ... ah, ... what's your name?" Kagome was trying ever so hard to keep her voice calm and gentle.

The girl that had been playfully reaching out to grab her holder's hair stopped and met Kagome's eyes in confusion. "Mommy's sick?" She tilted her head in such a manner that had Kagome not been freaked out of her wits, would have squealed and hugged the adorable bundle. "Don't smell sick.. it's Ainu. AINU!" She yelled her name out the second time, as if she were worried Kagome wouldn't be able to hear her.

Ainu giggled at Kagome's reaction: blinking away the name that would now forever be burnt into her head. "N-now listen, Ainu," she placed the blankly staring child on the ground in front of her. "You must have your mother confused with me. I'm not her. Understand?"

"No, mommy."

Kagome winced, and begged to any gods that she wouldn't make Ainu cry. "I am not your mommy." She spoke in firm, straight words, hoping she didn't come off as being mean.

The girl vigorously shook her head. "Uh uh, uh uh! You look like mommy. You sound like mommy. You smell like mommy. You're mommy!" Ainu glared at Kagome stubbornly. Where had that stubbornness come from?!

"What's your mommy's name?"

"K'gome."

"Where's she from?"

"The well!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Jump into th'well and there's the future!" Ainu grinned triumphantly at Kagome's defeated expression.

Kagome wacked her forehead with the palm of her right hand. Sighing, she sat down so she could be level with Ainu. 'Her facts are straight. Smell like her mom, eh? She is a youkai.' Looking at the girl standing in front of her with her arms crossed in a miniature imitation of Inuyasha, Kagome voiced her next question. "Ainu, who's your daddy?"

Ainu dropped her triumphant look in an instant, her arms falling to her sides. She blinked at her mother as the question processed. Her father was now the subject-matter.

"Keh!" She sniffed, crossing her arms again and looking huffily away. Kagome couldn't help but allow a small laugh to escape her throat. She had an idea who Ainu's father was, despite how bizarre...or embarrassing the entire concept was. "I hate daddy! Made me hide.. then I couldn't find mommy _or_ daddy!" Her chin wavered, but she didn't cry, though she felt the urge to run wailing into her mother's arms. "Missed you lots.."

Finally surrendering to her emotions, Ainu ran with a whimper to her mother's lap, latching her arms around Kagome's stomach in a tight, albeit small embrace. Kagome almost instantly hugged the girl back, her features melting into one of concern. Somehow, hugging Ainu felt right.

* * *

A loud wail-like snore exploded through the air, making three figures jump, while a smaller fourth merely shoved her head into a blanket to block the sounds as she slept. 

"Tell me why the runt is only quiet when he's huddled against Kagome?!" Inuyasha's ears lay plastered to his scalp, irritation seemingly fizzling out of his head—as well as spilt stew sizzling from his lap.

"Why do you think, Inuyasha?" Sango glanced at him and rolled her eyes.

Miroku nodded, deciding to fill his now empty bowl with more of their dinner. "To Shippou, Kagome is his mother."

"Keh." Inuyasha stated, shrugging off his retort. 'Where is she, anyway?' The wind suddenly whooshed through the group's campsite, causing Shippou to snuggle further into Kagome's sleeping bag.

Inuyasha hastily jumped to his feet, sniffing the air anxiously. 'Kagome's scent, and another?! Why hadn't I noticed before?' Sango and Miroku stared at the hanyou, concern showing in their eyes. "They're too similar!" he yelled the last bit of his thoughts out before bolting towards the hot spring.

* * *

"–an' then the head tried to eat me!" Ainu halted in her babbling for a second, glancing in the direction of Kagome's camp. "Daddy..." She murmured her recognition so quietly, Kagome almost missed it. 

Not a second later, Inuyasha burst out from the tree-line, his expression clearly stating 'Are you messing with _my_ Kagome?!' He took in the sight before him: a dumbstruck Kagome, and a hard-faced little girl hanging off her knees. The girl, she smelled of Kagome's flowery aroma mixed with his own dusky forest scent.

"Who the hell're you?!" He spat out after his moment of stupor.

* * *

Ainu! Get it?! She's Kagome and Inuyasha's "love puppy!" grins I feel so witty. 

Please review and give me thoughts/ideas/constructive criticism, etc!

Until next time!

Keri


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